Glad I'm Not the Only One

Even Scripture writers like Peter thought Paul's letters were hard to understand often times.

"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 3:16b

So we've established that his letters are difficult to understand. Peter also says that unstable people will distort his scriptures, probably by using them to justify their sinful actions. I see this happen all the time. Next you'll notice that Peter calls his letters "Scripture." He includes Paul's letters as God's word along with the Old Testament. 2 Peter was probably written in the mid-late 60's A.D., so at this very early period Paul's letters were already widely distributed and considered authoritative. In Paul's epistle to Timothy he quotes a verse from Luke right next to a verse of an Old Testament book (1 Timothy 5:18), which means Luke's Gospel was already widely spread and considered authoritative during Paul's ministry.