With that mentality why take anything Paul says? How do you decide which parts of the Bible to accept? Do we get to edit it when we find something we struggle with?
You're right, why take anything that is written as if it were smarter and better and more "true" than your own best judgement. I am not suggesting that Paul was a windbag who ought to be ignored but why follow him rather than your own best judgement? People like to say that because Paul wrote his pastoral letters under inspiration that what is in them is therefore God's own teaching. I am more inclined to say that what Paul wrote is inspired by God and it is useful yet it is not to be unquestioningly followed as if it were a new version of the ten commandments to bind the consciences of Christians on pain of hell for disobedience. If it were read like that then what difference is there between the new covenant and the old except for content? The spirit would be the same and Christians would be as bound by the written code as were the Jews under the old covenant yet Paul himself says we're not bound by the written code and that we are set free, as Jesus said, to serve the living God out of conscience and the guidance of the Spirit of God.
So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba! Father! The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. (Romans 8:12-17)
There is a maturity under the new covenant that was not present under the old. Christians are called to live by the Spirit of Christ Jesus and not to live by the old law (or even a new law that works in the same way as the old with demands and threats and absolute obedience the only way of holiness).
About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (Hebrews 5:11-14)
