Guide to The Pilgrim's Progress Part Two - The Interpreter's Garden

After this, he led them into his garden, where was great variety of flowers. And he said, “Do you see all these?” So Christiana said, “Yes.” Then said he again, “Behold the flowers are diverse in stature, in quality, in color, and smell, and virtue, and some are better than others. Also, where the gardener has set them, there they stand; and quarrel not one with another.”

Notes and Commentary

For the next lesson, the Interpreter leads the pilgrims into his garden. There they see a “great variety of flowers.” This imagery comes from Song of Solomon 4 where the Beloved sings a love song to his bride. In verse 4 he compares her beauty to an “enclosed” (protected and nurtured) garden.

A garden enclosed
Is my sister, my spouse,
A spring shut up,
A fountain sealed.
Your plants are an orchard of pomegranates
With pleasant fruits,
Fragrant henna with spikenard,
Spikenard and saffron,
Calamus and cinnamon,
With all trees of frankincense,
Myrrh and aloes,
With all the chief spices—
A fountain of gardens,
A well of living waters,
And streams from Lebanon.
(Song of Solomon 4:12–15)

Many commentators have recognized the parallel in the Song of Solomon between the Beloved’s love for his bride and Christ’s love for His church. Bunyan uses this imagery here in his allegory. The Garden represents the local church. The “great variety of flowers” signifies Christians, individual members of each church. Christ is the Gardener, and it is He who places each flower where He wills. Bunyan has used the imagery of a garden before. In Part 1 of The Pilgrim’s Progress, when Christian and Hopeful arrive in the country of Beulah, Christ appears as a Gardener. He is there in the midst of His “vineyards and gardens” where He delights to be, which “are planted here for his own delight, and also for the solace of pilgrims.”

It is here in the Interpreter’s Garden that Bunyan highlights one of the most significant lessons from Part 2 of The Pilgrim’s Progress. Earlier in the allegory, he emphasized the need for Christian fellowship and friendship. Mercy willingly joined Christiana and her children as they began their journey to the Celestial City. He also stressed the need for protection and guidance. When the pilgrims encountered the Ill-favored ones, a Reliever came to help them. The journey is fraught with “troubles and dangers” and the Reliever marveled that they did not asked for help at the Gate They needed a conductor who could watch over them, protect them, and guide them along the Way. Now Bunyan offers a beautiful metaphor describing where pilgrims can find the fellowship, encouragement, and watch care they need. Christians need to be joined to a local church; they need to grow and walk the journey together in a loving, nurturing community of faith.

In this brief lesson, Bunyan highlights three truths about the church and its members.

1. The flowers are diverse. There is a “great variety of flowers” growing together in the garden. The diversity of flowers signifies Christians who are at various stages of life and maturity in their faith and walk with the Lord. There is both young and old, rich and poor, married and single. Each one has different talents, gifts, and experiences. Each has different strengths and weaknesses. Some have served the Lord for many years. Others are new to the faith. Yet all live and serve together in the church.

2. The flowers stand where the gardener places them. It is God who leads and guides in the life of each Christian. It is He who determines who our parents are, where we are born, and where we live. And though we wrestle with choices and make our own decisions, it is He who ultimately sets the course of our lives.

A man’s heart plans his way,
But the Lord directs his steps.
(Proverbs 16:9)

This includes His providently placing us in local churches.

3. The flowers do not quarrel with one another. The Garden is a picture of how we should live together in the church. The flowers are content with where the Gardiner has placed them. They do not envy one another or complain. They do not pull up roots and try the garden down the street. They grow where they are planted. Though some be more vibrant, more prominent, or more mature, every flower adds to the beauty of the garden.

Bunyan elaborates the metaphor of a garden representing the church in his book Christian Behavior: Being the Fruits of True Christianity. In the introduction, as he gives his reasons for writing the book, he explains:

Lastly, I have thus written, because it is amiable and pleasant to God, when Christians keep their rank, relation, and station, doing all as becomes their quality and calling. When Christians stand every one in their places, and do the work of their relations, then they are like the flowers in the garden, that stand and grow where the gardener hath planted them, and then they shall both honor the garden in which they are planted, and the gardener that has so disposed of them. [From Christian Behavior, in The Works of John Bunyan (Banner of Truth), 2:550]

The variety of flowers in the garden not only adds to the beauty of the garden, it helps the garden to flourish. Bunyan explains:

The doctrine of the gospel is like the dew and the small rain that distills upon the tender grass, wherewith it doth flourish, and is kept green (Deuteronomy 32:2). Christians are like the several flowers in a garden, that have upon each of them the dew of heaven, which being shaken with the wind, they let fall their dew at each other’s roots, whereby they are jointly nourished, and become nourishers of one another. For Christians to commune savourly of God’s matters one with another, it is as if they opened to each other’s nostrils boxes of perfume. Saith Paul to the church at Rome, “I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be established; that is, that I may be comforted together with you, by the mutual faith both of you and me” (Romans 1:11–12). Christians should be often affirming the doctrine of grace, and justification by it, one to another. [From Christian Behavior, in The Works of John Bunyan (Banner of Truth), 2:570]

As we walk together, the blessings that God brings to each of us are more easily shared and magnified, both in usefulness and praise. Where I have been given strength, I can lift others up. Where I am weak, I can find help close at hand to lift me up. The dew from heaven that refreshes my soul falls not just on me, but on all around me.

Here is wisdom we need for the journey. Scripture teaches us to come together so we can exhort and encourage one another. We are not to walk the journey alone.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching (Hebrews 10:23–25).

God has given us His Word to strengthen our faith and teach us to walk in His Way. He knows what we need for our journey to be successful. We must heed His Word by “not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.” We must learn to grow and live and walk together in the church. This will be an especially valuable lesson later in the allegory as more join with the pilgrims on their journey to the Celestial City.

Continue reading 30. The Interpreter's Field

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The text for The Pilgrim's Progress
and images used are public domain
Notes and Commentary for Part II ©2014, 2021–2023 Ken Puls

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from
the New King James Version (NKJV) ©1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

Above image created from Unsplash

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