Are Paul's letters to be taken as God's word?

In 1 Corinthians 13 Paul says "For we know in part and we prophecy in part...For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then...Now I know in part..." He said these to people to help them understand his letter. Since Paul, the author said that his understanding is not without limitation; we should not take it beyond what he acknowledged. In contrast, when Jesus spoke to people, He spoke with full authority all the time since “the Word was with God, and the Word was God…The Word became flesh…” as indicated by John 1.

In Galatians 1 Paul made it clear and specific that “the gospel he preached” is not something that man made up; rather, he received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. He didn’t claim that everything he preached was based on revelation. 1 Corinthians 7 also indicates that he had expressed his judgment in his letter without command from the Lord. So, the letters of Paul are the Apostle’s words. Within the Apostle’s words, however, there are precious revelations of the Word.

So, should we treat Paul’s letters as Jesus’ words in the Gospels (as unquestionable Word of God) or as a Christian book by a modern author (thus entitled to disagree)? Clearly the second option is unacceptable. Books of modern authors do not have equivalent credibility as Paul‘s letters and other Apostles’ documents in proclaiming Christ and preaching the Gospel. No modern books can match the writings in New Testament for preserving Jesus’ words and teaching. But, should we then treat Paul’s writing equivalent to Jesus’ words? Paul has the answer for us in his own writing. The Gospel preached by him was directly from God, thus the message should be treated as Jesus’ words. However, for those teachings with some uncertainty and/or personal influence as noted by Paul within the letters, we should not treat them as Jesus’ words in the Gospels. Instead, we should let the Holy Spirit to guide us to understand them.

Either you believe in the complete and total inerrancy of scripture, or the entire Christian faith has absolutely no basis, whatsoever. Therefore, I would submit that nothing can be discredited, or everything can. After all, do we believe what John and Peter wrote?? If them, why not Paul?? For that matter, how do we know that Moses or Samuel of the Old Testament were speaking the Word of The Lord?? Either we believe in the foresight of God and in the perfection of His Word, in its entirety, or Christianity is a fallacy.

I won't give a long and extensive answer as I think others have covered adequately a lot of what I would say.

However I would point to the fact that Paul's letters show clearly and accurately how God works both through and with His children. Paul's statements that are noted as from him and not from God are no less "God's Word" (meant to be part of the Bible), but are at the same time "Paul's" words. This is similar to how in various parts of the word Paul says "If anyone preaches another gospel other than the one we preach to you let them be accursed".

Paul could say this because not only does he have a reborn spirit (born of God), but he is baptised with the Holy Spirit as well (Acts 9:17), and because this gospel was verified as true by the other Apostles. Paul had authority to speak and write for God, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Also, the Bible says that all scripture is given by inspiration of the Holy Spirit and is profitable (II Timothy 3:16). Some parts of scripture (such as when Paul says to bring parchments), may same useless, but they are somehow just as powerful - because they are God breathed.

It is possible to believe that the Epistles where actual letters written by Paul, and at the same time believe that the Gospels are accurate accounts of what Jesus did and spoke.

And then further, if you believe you should follow Jesus's words alone, you can still call yourself a Christian, if you define "Christian" as "follower of Christ".

Matthew 23:8 “But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have one Teacher, and you are all brothers. 9 And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. 10 Nor are you to be called instructors, for you have one Instructor, the Messiah.

Simple answer of no use to you:

At Mass when Paul's epistles or any other non-gospel reading is read or sung, the lector says.

the word of the LORD

To which the people respond.

thanks be to God

We say this even when the reading is some bummer out of Job or Lamentations or all the Maccabees just got killed.

Peter himself considered Paul's writings to be scripture in 2 Peter 3:15,16:

and consider [that] the longsuffering of our Lord [is] salvation--as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable [people] twist to their own destruction, as [they do] also the rest of the Scriptures.

Note how Peter says the rest of the Scriptures? He is telling us that he considers Paul's writings (which some find hard to understand) as part of the Scriptures.

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?—1^st 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 2^nd and 3^rd 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 1^st 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 2^nd or early 3^rd 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."—2^nd Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV)

1 Corinthians 7:12 has an interesting phrase (emphasis mine)

Now to the married I command, yet not I but the Lord: A wife is not to depart from her husband. But even if she does depart, let her remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his wife. But to the rest I, not the Lord, say: If any brother has a wife who does not believe, and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her.

The interesting bit here is that Paul seems to assume that everything else he is writing is from the Lord. Historically, all Chalcedonian Christians (+/- 0.1%) up to the time of Schleiermacher have agreed. Even heretics like the 2nd century Marcion accepted Paul as being part of the canon.

Indeed, to single out the Gospels as a somehow being "more Scriptural" is a fallacy (I think heresy would be too sharp a term) called "canon within the canon". Iraneus of Lyons in particular taught that all of Scripture was one organic whole, and to treat it otherwise runs contrary to the prevailing Orthodoxy of the time.

In modern times, this view has come about that Paul is somehow secondary to the words of Jesus, but it is not a form of Christianity that any of the Patrisics would have accepted.

In general, once something is considered "canonical," it literally means that it "measures up" to being God's revealed word. You can discount Paul if you want, but it is definitely what the ancients would have derisively called "novel."

Historically, that is also part of the reason that canon was reserved to those who were apostles. To clarify, Paul considered himself "the least of the apostles," but an apostle nonetheless. He was an eyewitness of Jesus after the resurrection, per Acts 9. Historically the church Fathers saw him as the legitimate heir to Judas (as opposed to say, Matthias), and a full apostle. As such, he was considered canonical.

The Apostle Peter certainly treated Paul's letters as God's word, elevating them to the status of written scripture:

He [Paul] writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

2 Peter 3:16, with my emphasis.