Abstract

Whether Paul's letters are God's Word to us depends entirely on the criteria you use. I will list a number of criteria and evaluate the letters.

Did Paul think he was writing God's Word?

I asked and answered the above question separately (it was getting to long for this space). In summary, I think Paul had some inkling that he was writing significant work that might stand beside or even against Jewish Scripture. But since the Jewish canon had not yet been finalized, it's possible (even likely) that Paul didn't believe his letters would be singled out from other, later Christian writings.

Did the letter's recipients think they were God's Word?

The primary indication against is that Paul argues mostly from reason and tradition rather than merely asserting authority. For instance, Paul addresses the division in the nascent church at Corinth:

For it has been reported to me by Chloe's people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?—1st Corinthians 1:11-13 (ESV)

We get the idea that Paul's audience didn't know who to believe.

On the other hand, the recipients of Philemon took care to preserve that relatively inconsequential letter (as did the recipients of 2nd and 3rd John). That shows they valued Paul's words more than just as a friend. Since Paul references letters sent to him that we no longer have, we must assume it wasn't a case of packrat syndrome. (To be fair, Paul references other letters that he wrote, but which do not seem to be preserved, so not everything he wrote was Scripture.)

Did the early church think they were God's Word?

Yes! In addition shortly after Clement of Rome (late 1st century), the church seems to have agreed that Paul's letters and the fourfold gospel were authoritative. Even Clement quoted favorably from Paul, though he still was in the mindset of calling only the Septuagint Scripture. By the late 2nd or early 3rd we have manuscript evidence that Paul's letters were in circulation as a collection. Most of the early arguments about the Christian canon focus on texts outside of Paul, such as James, Hebrews, The Shepherd of Hermas, and etc. For many Christians, the list produced by Athanasius of Alexandria in 367 AD represents the final Canon of the New Testament. (But note that the list is not terribly different than the list of texts Clement relied on.)

To be honest, Paul's credentials as an author of Scripture are impeccable and I must now turn the question back to you:

Why do you think Paul's letters are not God's Word?

Here's what you wrote:

Sometimes, as I read the bible or listen to a speaker in church, I can't help but feel that while Paul's letters are full of well-grounded Christian wisdom and advice, they can also contain what seems to me like Paul's human opinions, as opposed to God's own word. I do believe Paul is a true apostle, spoken to by Jesus on the road to Damascus, and an important figure, but he's also just a human man, right?

First, I agree that at times Paul speaks from his own wisdom. But we need to be careful to not fall in to the trap of tailoring God's Word to our own preferences. That path leads to intellectual dishonesty and spiritual immaturity. Paul was an intellectual, spiritual, theological and evangelical giant. What's more, he was bursting with the authority of the Holy Spirit. It's not for nothing that Jesus is the hero of the first volume of Luke's two-part history of the church, and Paul is the hero of the second. Personally, it makes me humble when I read Paul's letters. There's more wisdom in the points I disagree with Paul then in the entire corpus of many other authors.

Second, the Church universal has been given significant authority by Jesus:

Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”—Luke 24:44-49 (ESV)

The final sentence was a reference to the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. You can read about what happened next in Acts. The point is God didn't step out of the picture when Jesus ascended. Rather, Jesus transferred His authority to the Church empowered by the Holy Spirit. In turn, the Church recognized Paul's letters and the rest of the New Testament as "breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work."—2nd Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV)