So the message is, having an honorable vocation
There is no honor in demanding payment for your love.
ministry which spreads the gospel,
You can't spread the gospel if you're busy giving your time to making money.
What a proud, boastful attitude; God needs you to demand payment for your love or the bills won't be paid? Poor God; if you didn't work to support him, how could he survive? How could he provide for his servants without you? Don't you see just how horrible that kind of attitude is?
to take care of your family
The testimony you've suggested giving to your family is that the value of life is found in the profit you can derive from selling your God-given skills to the highest bidder. That is not care.
to take care of your own needs so no one else has to
Once again, what a proud, boastful comment; "I demand payment from others so that I can afford not to need help from anyone!" Paul wasn't saying that we should manipulate payment from one another so that we'd never need to ask for help. What a horrible twisting of his words! He was saying the exact opposite; people who join the Christian community should be ready to work hard in service to one another rather than expecting others to provide everything for them.
Have you never experienced lazy moochers? Have you never once, yourself, mooched from others? Paul's rebukes about people in the Christian community "working with their own hands" is a rebuke to lazy people. It's not a command that the Church of God should start demanding payment from one another because they're afraid of starving to death. My goodness, what a horrible lie to tell in the name of Paul! If he were here today, I'm sure he would be disappointed.
We are called to carry our own burden, and also to carry the burden of others. You've done everything you can to twist this concept into caring for yourself, first, and perhaps, once you've done that and have a bit of extra income, give to your religion as a sign of your own piety. Care for others is just a convenient doctrine. It's really all about you. This is why Jesus rebuked the Pharisees even when they donated to the church; he said they were doing it out of their abundance. Rather, he commended a widow who gave everything she had, even though it was far, far, far less that what the other people gave. The point was that she trusted God to take care of her.
I interpret
Matthew 6:24 as Jesus is saying to not make the pursuit of riches (possessions) the main pursuit in life.
Remember when I said that some people claim Jesus didn't really mean what he said? You expressed some incredulity at that, even declaring:
From what I've seen no one in either thread is saying Jesus didn't really mean what he said
Yet, here you are, saying that Jesus didn't really mean what he said about money. Jesus said, "You will hold to one, and
despise the other". That's pretty clear, especially when you compare this to the behavior of his disciples and all the thousands of new Christians who joined the church in Acts 2 and 4. Jesus told his followers to go into all the world teaching them to obey all he had told them to follow. That's exactly what they did, and as a result, thousands of new converts sold everything they had, shared all things in common and, went everywhere preaching this same message.
Now, some modern day Christians have decided that such commitment is not necessary; that you
can demand payment for your love because Jesus only meant his teachings for those
other people.
We live in a different time where it is honorable to demand payment, so long as you're doing it in the name of what you believe makes your own life better. You have so many ways to make such demands sound respectable and normal, so similar to Satan merely suggesting that Jesus change stone to bread. After all, wasn't Jesus hungry? Wasn't it within Jesus' power to feed himself? Would God really want Jesus to be a lowly, homeless beggar who could not even take care of himself, much less the souls of all the world? What kind of leader would Jesus be if he couldn't even take care of himself? Wouldn't Paul be so very disappointed in Jesus, according to your interpretation of Paul's comments about a man caring for his family.
Christians beware; Satan's temptation did not cease when he left Jesus. Jesus meant what he said when he said that his teachings will judge us. He meant what he said when he said some will call him Lord, yet he will reject them.
His teachings are the standards of the Kingdom of Heaven; there is no amount of jargon, or religious double-speak, or flowery speech about how he is Lord, or rituals, or sacraments, or tradition which will impress him. He is looking for those sincere individuals who respond to his spirit, and his teachings are his spirit.
No one can say they belong to Jesus while rejecting his teachings, no matter how ritualized they make their speech. Don't be fooled. Jesus meant what he said. Believe that. Really, really take it in; he meant what he said.
Before he is a loving God, he is a just God. He will judge righteously. If you're using his love and grace to justify selfishness, he will see it, even if you don't. That's what makes this whole situation so terrifying. We so easily deceive ourselves. That's exactly why wise men said, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom". Whatever you've been told about salvation and security; question it in the light of the teachings of Jesus. Re-examine whatever security you may feel with fear and trembling, because that is the beginning of wisdom. Do it every day, using Jesus' teachings as your cornerstone.