Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit ( Proverbs 26:4-5 , KJV)... Both statements are true, and are to be taken seriously. In the first proverb, we are taught that we ought not respond to a fool on his level, we ought not to allow ourselves to be brought down to the level of a fool by answering him as foolishly as he has spoken. On the other hand, we are to answer the fool in a way that gives him no dignity, no satisfaction, lest he take himself too seriously. A fool is to be deal with as a fool, but we should not be made fools also in the process.
Bob Deffinbaugh

CXII. The Piercing of the Saviour’s Side.

JOHN xix. 34. “One of the soldiers with a spear pierced His
side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.”

I. EVEN after our Lord’s death men rudely assailed Him.
We too, after His death, have pierced Him by hypocrisy,
by unbelief, by carelessness.
II. These attacks on the Saviour are overruled to display
His grace the better. The heart of Christ was opened by
the spear, and often the heart of truth is revealed by the
opposition brought to bear against it.
III. Since the soldier sent his spear into the Saviour’s
heart, the way to that heart is open. It was always open;
but now we can see it.
IV. The wound in Christ’s side reveals the heart of
Jesus in its preciousness, blood to pardon, water to sanc-
tify.
Charles H. Spurgeon