12:47 many stripes. Since the context surrounding this parable is the judgment at the return of Christ (Luke 12:40, 49), its purpose is clearly to teach that there will somehow be degrees of punishment in hell. Both servants represent lost sinners, and both are punished, with neither saved. The intensity of suffering, however, is inflicted in accordance with degree of sinfulness in relation to degree of light received or truth known. We may not fully understand how this can be, but the righteous “Judge of all the earth” (Genesis 18:25) is well able to “render every man according to his deeds” (Romans 2:6).