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Bruce Charlton over at Bruce Charlton's Miscellany has a post up titled: "Hard and Soft Hearts - and Toughness". He writes:
We must make tough decisions - that is decisions that are right but which lead to upfront, immediate costs.
For those with a soft, warm heart - these decisions are a cause of pain; but we must not harden our hearts to make tough decisions.
At some level, it sounds a little like a sanctimonious "love thy neighbor" type of advice. I think that must be one of the most difficult of the New Testament's messages to understand, and possibly one of the most misunderstood and misinterpreted.
Since I don't have the theological capacity to untangle the meaning of this message, other than how it might affect my ordinary days, I think it means that one should aim for good (love) rather than evil (hate) as much as one can. But I don't think this message explain what to do in extraordinary times.
I think we are now in a time of spiritual war, in extraordinary times. Different "neighbors" are around us, with different agendas, and often with non-Christian, or anti-love intentions. Are we to love those neighbors, or more precisely, those false neighbors?
I think the Christian way, to avoid the evil of hate, is to distance oneself from such pseudo-neighbors, and to try hard to find like-minded neighbors, however much geographically distant they may be. I think we should prepare for the battle by strengthening (Charleton might call this hardening) our spiritual heart. With conflicting "neighborly" love that is constantly undermining and weakening this spiritual heart, we have to remove ourselves (psychologically, geographically, spiritually) from such false neighbors, and find our true neighbors who will go on the battlefield by our side. Thus can we strengthen our spiritual heart, without hardening it. And be ready for the battle when the time comes.