“If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed.”
This is Paul’s fourth-last sentence in his first letter to the Corinthians. It’s a pretty decisive concluding statement,
and I’ve always wondered about it just a little.
I mean, it’s awfully strong language, making it difficult to argue that the apostle is merely using rhetoric to make
his point. It is literally, “Let him be anathema,” meaning “doomed to destruction”.
One might well ask the question, “Is that exactly fair?” For a lack of love?