The Bereans,I have learned from nonCatholics,were in great favor because they pored over scripture,testing everything against it. That is what I do.This is good. This, plus earnest prayer to God for understanding of what you read, will bring you into a fuller and fuller truth.
So while there is much that Paul has written that conforms to scripture, some simply does not.
It's strange that you should say this, because the Catholic Church affirms the writings of Paul in the New Testament as scripture.
But, that aside, ... what is there, in your opinion, which Paul has written which does not conform to scripture ?
With my lack of knowledge about specific Bible passages I probably should not have entered into this particular discussion. But I did because I was curious and I will continue because I do have these questions or misgivings and I would like to hear how others see things.
I guess the best place to start is to say that in my twenties (in the mid-sixties)I noticed a diminution of the emphasis on the first three Commandments. It seemed that the whole reason for my being,the purpose for which I and others were born was getting fuzzier and a new facet was taking precedence,and that was to love my neighbor as I loved myself.
I had always heard this as part of the Gospel and the reason we were to help others and act with charity to anyone in any kind of material and spiritual need but to that point (the sixties)it had always been emphasized that first we must love God.This was in order to understand love,since He created us and loved us first and in that process we would begin to understand love and how to love HIm. From that base,understanding His love for us and our returning that love,we would get an understanding of the love we should bring to others.
As time went on I heard the epistles from Galations and Romans used as the scriptural basis for the homilies that were more and more boring and useless. Both of these passages sum up the Gospel (according to Paul) as "love your neighbor".Since I knew Jesus in both Mark and Matthew said the greatest Commandment was "Love God" and then,"Love your neighbor as yourself",I just continued to love God first and did not look at this as conflict (Jesus vis a vis Paul)but I was aware of a deemphasis.
Concomitant with this subtle change in the "preaching" was a change in the "teaching".The search for God became an individual "experiential" endeavor.Again,I attributed to reading more and more of Paul,who I had accepted previously as the "apostle" to the Gentiles and building on the Old Testament and the New but never denying Truth.But then I started listening for traces of what God had asked of all who believed in Him,such as obedience to the Ten Commandments but all I saw in Paul was testimony that we were no longer under the law.And,as I listened and read,it seemed to me that I was hearing an advocacy of a new religion,free of more than just the dietary laws and the sacrificial laws but free of the moral Law.
I know I am not expressing myself clearly but I hope you can discern my concerns.To try to put it another way. Jesus seems to cultivate,plant,water and weed in order to bring Truth and establish it within the kingdom,He is a nourisher and a nurturer and a shepherd,He is God.Paul seems to act as if,the Truth springs full grown in your heart from some "enlightenment experience" similar to his.
I know Paul is accepted by the Church and his writings as official scripture,my thoughts are that at this point in the Western world he is used without the proper foundation and has hurt Christianity.That is what I meant.Help!!