The story of Devadatta is very instructive [in the discussion of Hōben]. Its message is that even our enemies, regardless of their intentions, can be bodhisattvas for us if we regard them as such. In this sutra, Devadatta, the embodiment of evil in so much Buddhist literature outside of the Lotus Sutra, is thanked by the Buddha for being helpful. “Thanks to my good friend Devadatta, I was able to develop fully the six pāramitās, with pity, compassion, joy, equanimity,” etc. The Buddha learned from his experiences with Devadatta, making Devadatta a bodhisattva, but we are not told that this was in any way a function of what Devadatta himself intended. Good intentions may be good in their own right, but they are not what is all important or even most important in a bodhisattva. What is more important is effectiveness, effectiveness in leading others to the Buddha-way, and thus to their salvation.

It is their “only” salvation because outside of the Buddha-way there is, and can be, no other way. If an act is salvific it is good, and if it is good it is bodhisattva practice, and if it is bodhisattva practice it is included in the Buddha-way. Whatever else it is, the Buddha-way is good and includes everything good, that is, everything that leads to salvation.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Gene Reeves, Appropriate Means as the Ethics of the Lotus Sutra, Page 383