The word anathema means cursed or damned. And of course, because God is just, this condemnation does not occur apart from sin — it is the natural and necessary condition that results from sin. Those who plotted against Paul’s life wickedly placed themselves under a great curse (Acts 23:14), vowing that they would eat nothing until they had killed Paul. It is not surprising that the cursed want to take the language of cursing into their mouths — perhaps they are trying to get ahead of it, get control of it, put some English on it. But no one speaking by the Spirit of God can ever call Jesus cursed (1 Cor. 12:3).
Paul wished that he could be accursed and separated from Christ if it might help his brethren the Jews come to salvation (Rom 9:3). And of course his zeal for the gospel of Christ throws every form of anti-Semitic “zeal” for the gospel into the shade.
This zeal for the gospel shows that the gospel is the ultimate authority. Paul says that if he, or an angel from heaven, or sixteen popes, or the moderator of the General Assembly, or the CEO of the National Association of Evangelicals, shows up and starts preaching another gospel, then let him be cursed (Gal. 1:8,9). The gospel governs the cosmos. And if anyone does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, then may God damn him (1 Cor. 16:22).