Affirmations and anathemas go together: “We affirm” is accompanied by “we deny. In Paul’s letter to the Galatians, we find treatise on the freedom of the Christian and the glorious implications of the truth that we are justified by faith and not the works of the Law. But Paul makes his case not merely by affirming justification by faith, but also by railing against those who would teach that our right standing before God is something we earn. In the same letter that makes the grace of God so vivid, the apostle lambastes the Galatian church for fudging on a central aspect of the gospel of grace, going so far as to pronounce curses even on an angel who would alter the message as he delivered it (Galatians 1:6-9). The same combination of affirmation and anathema shows up in other letters as well (1 Corinthians 16:22), that anyone who would preach another gospel should be cursed. Not ignored, set aside, neglected, or “dialogued with, but cursed.
The apostle John is known for letters that overflow with love—love for God, and love for brothers and sisters in Christ. Again and again, he holds up the glorious reality of God’s love for us in Christ, and then issues the command that Christians must ove one another in response. He is nicknamed “the apostle of love” Yet this love does not remove anathemas. Love provides the basis for his warnings. He insists on the difference between those who acknowledge that Jesus has come in the flesh as Israel’s Messiah and those who deny this central doctrine (1 John 4:1-3). In one letter, he goes so far as to tell the early Christians to refuse fellowship with anyone who would deny the truth about Christ (2 John 10-11). John did not downplay or deny the stakes of doctrine in the name of “love,” as if love could be reduced to a sappy, sentimentalized vision of the world that fails to take doctrine seriously. It is his love for Christ and the church that grounds his warnings.
— Trevin Wax
iustitia aliena 
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