John Bunyan A Pilgrim’s Progress

Life in seventeenth century Britain was no picnic. Many homes consisted of one or two rooms crowded with large families. Women often gave birth to eight to ten children; however, half of them often died in infancy. If you could regularly afford meat or fish, you were considered well-to-do; but if you were poor, then it was just bread, cheese, and onions—supplemented by pottage, or boiled grain—as your daily fare.

This was the world into which John Bunyan was born in 1628, and while his father was a tinker—a traveling mender of metal household utensils—the family was not affluent. Neither was young John, who learned the tinker’s trade from his father. As a youth, John was rowdy and his language shocked even other reprobates in his hometown.

An early marriage to a Christian girl gave Bunyan a framework for “piety” of a sort: He would read the prayers and attend church twice daily, but it was all a formality, not an effort of the heart. Bunyan would try to “be good” and fail, try and fail, and occasionally give up for a round of sinful living.

Finally, he came across a copy of Martin Luther’s commentary on the book of Galatians. The great reformer’s words spoke to Bunyan’s heart. One biographer said Bunyan’s “happiness was now as intense as his misery had been.”

Despite continuing struggles, Bunyan persevered, until the words of 1 John 1:7 gripped his heart. He would later recall, “I saw, moreover, that it was not my good frame of heart that made my righteousness better, nor my bad frame that made my righteousness worse, for my righteousness was Jesus Christ Himself, ‘the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever.’”

Bunyan’s conversion was final; he embarked on a career of preaching as a “non-conformist” minister, leading to a 12-year imprisonment at a time when religious tolerance was almost nonexistent. During that time, he wrote Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners and The Pilgrim’s Progress, both of which remain in print today.

John Bunyan suffered much as a sinner and even more as a pilgrim on his Christian journey. But perseverance and prayer fortified his life, enabling him to leave a legacy that spans the centuries.

Reflect: Do you know anyone who has had the struggle John Bunyan did in finding peace with God? What would you say to them to encourage their journey?

Key Bible Texts

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. (1 John 1:7 KJV)