Before I get started here, I want to make something very clear. Although I believe 
that Paul taught a lot that was false, and he may have even had the idea of perverting the church of the early believers to defeat it with if-you-can’t-beat-em-join-em strategy — I don’t believe everything that Paul taught was wrong. After all, the earliest original writings of Jesus’ actual disciples were around at that time and it’s certain that he read them. In fact, there are some things in Paul’s letters that sound a lot like the Gospels that the early church used during that period.
What Was Paul Really ‘Persecuted’ For?
Paul was “persecuted” for teaching against the Law by Jewish Believers. The Jewish Christians did hold on to many of their traditions such as circumcision and keeping the sabbath, etc.
They considered him to be an apostate for teaching doctrines contrary to the teachings of Jesus. There is even evidence from manuscripts found in the Dead Sea Scrolls that Paul was possibly ex-communicated from the church by James the brother of Jesus.
The Jewish Christians did believe in doing good works and keeping the law and the commandments of God as a requirement for salvation, and they rejected many things of Jewish tradition and parts of the law that were of men and not of God. Jesus wasn’t against keeping the Law, at least the parts that were good. But he also taught that men should keep the spirit of the law and not the letter of the law.
Though Jesus came to fulfill the law, he definitely preached against things that were merely the Jewish traditions and not the law of God. Not to justify Paul, but the Jewish Christians were not so much against him preaching against the law of Moses, but for preaching that one didn’t need “works of righteousness” to be saved, and keeping the law, was to them being righteous.
This is obvious when we read the works of righteousness that Jesus listed in Matthew 25. To sum up Matthew 25: the “goats” who did not do works of righteousness went away into “everlasting punishment, but the righteous who did do good works went into “life eternal”.
It’s evident that Jesus considered that one who did works of righteousness was righteous and was “saved”. In contrast to Paul who taught you didn’t need works of righteousness to be saved, but you only needed to “believe that God raised Jesus from the dead” to be saved (Rom 10:9). (* the terms “everlasting” and “eternal” are mistranslated. Follow this link to see the article)
Paul Taught:
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; (Tit 3:5)
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. (Eph 2:8-9)
Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, (Rom 4:6)
This was definitely Paul’s downfall with the Jewish Christians: salvation without ‘works of righteousness’. But Paul no doubt that he got himself into double trouble when he preached against keeping the Mosaic Laws.
He directly contradicted the teachings of Jesus and his apostles (of which he was not). Paul was rejected by all the churches in Asia and in Israel for his false teachings. He was forced to leave those areas and focus his “ministry” to the gentiles who were mainly Greeks and Romans in and around Italy, where his false doctrines were accepted and his form of Christianity became strong with the support of the Roman government.
Jesus commanded his disciples to not to go and preach to the Gentiles and Samrarians, but to the “lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Mat 10:5-7) Paul did just the opposite and went to the Gentiles. The Jews disagreed with what Paul was teaching and Paul got upset and said, from now on I’m only going to the Gentiles. Jesus was only sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But Paul didn’t follow Jesus, he went his own way. It was probably his preaching against the Law that got him in trouble with the Jews.
…Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean; from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles. (Acts 18:6)
Paul’s easy-to-get-saved religion became popular with the gentiles and since he was able to win over the most powerful empire in the world, Rome, his style of corrupted Christianity won out and the Jewish believers lost. What’s worse is that as Paul’s flavor of Christianity became the official religion of the Roman empire, Christianity became more corrupted and further from the way of life that Jesus taught.
Paul Taught a Different Gospel than Jesus
Christians today don’t realize this. Those who defend Paul saying that God raised him up to show the early church (not talking about the Jews here) how that with Jesus’ crucifixion, the Mosaic law was “nailed to the cross” and they didn’t have to keep it any more, is false interpretation. Even Paul listed some parts of the Law that he considered still valid and that it was good if they were kept — keeping the Law is one of the things that keep people righteous. In a certain way, he was right to say that keeping the Law doesn’t save, but then neither does faith alone.
As said before, Salvation is a “work in progress”, it’s the “process of perfection” — this is where keeping the Law actually helps in the progress of this process. It takes time. But they are saying that it took Paul to show the Jewish Christians that they no longer had to keep the Mosaic law and that was a revelation from God to him in some way. It doesn’t make sense that the first Christians who knew Jesus’ teachings first hand and followed them would be keeping ALL the mosaic law as a requirement for salvation.
And He said against Moses “Indeed I do not speak against the law, but against those who corrupted his law… (Gospel of the Nazarenes 51:17)
This is very presumptuous of the modern day Christians, since the Gospels clearly say that Jesus came to fulfill the law. However, Jesus is actually talking about the law of God and not all the laws of Moses and the Jewish traditions. This seems obvious, since he blasted the the (false) teachings of the law that were not of God and were actually of men.
Jesus Taught It Was Necessary to Keep the Laws of Moses — But Not All of Them
What Jesus actually did was, not that he preached that you should not keep the law, but actually to keep the part of the law that was of God — and not of men (which he defined). Furthermore, Jesus taught keeping the spirit of the law and not the letter. For example, in the eyes of the Jews Jesus broke the Sabbath by healing on that day or pulling one’s ox out of the ditch. What he was trying to show them was that doing good to your fellow man or animal, just because it is the Sabbath, is not breaking the law. The whole basis of the Law was to “love your neighbor as yourself”.
“Don’t think that I have come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I have not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass, one jot or one title shall in no way pass from the law or the prophets until all be fulfilled.”(Gospel of the Nazarenes 25:8)
Next: Paul: the False Apostle | The Gospel According to Saint Paul