I think that we are on the same page, to me it's a matter of focus and priorities. The scriptures says that out of the abundance of the heart a mouth speaks, if 90% of what I hear from someone pertains to money, I think I know where their treasure is.
Not so fast -- it depends on how they talk about money. If they're asking for it, you have a point, but if they're talking about what it's for in God's eyes that's a different matter.
I've known a couple of incredibly fantastic pastors who will never be famous because they insist, on solid biblical grounds, that the only reason God allows someone to be wealthy is to use it up doing good. One saw no reason anyone would need to live on more than $40k/yr (probably more like twice that now), and maintained that anything above that fit into the verse that says God has set up good works we can do, and it's our job to do them -- so if He allows you wealth, that means He has a whole pile of opportunities out there for helping people that will use up that wealth. Rich Christians don't want to hear that.
As for a distinction between believers and sinners, I see none except for the grace of God, one sinner may have accepted it while the other might not have.
I once made a remark in front of my then pastors wife that we all sin daily. This upset her, she replied that while she conceded the issue that we all sin sometimes, she didn't think that she sinned everyday.
I explained to her that there are sins of commissions and sins of omission, if we know to do good and don't do it we have sinned, it is only through faith that we please God, not by good works as we can never do enough and not by abstinence from sin as we can sin in our heart in many ways.
This left her rather confounded, suddenly we, the church were no better than the folks 'out there'.
She should read Martin Luther, who expounds that we all sin constantly, because it isn't in us to do things utterly and thoroughly just for others or for God -- there's always a little piece of us feeling good about ourselves or congratulating ourselves or getting some actual benefit from it.
And since I first heard it, I fell in love with the weekly Lutheran prayer which begins, "I, a poor miserable sinner". The beauty of it is that it doesn't wallow in being a sinner, but accepts the fact that there's nothing we can do about it, hands the matter to God, and looks
to all the good we can do anyway. Lutherans take sin both more seriously and more lightly than almost any others, seriously because they acknowledge that it is impossible to not sin, even for a moment, but lightly because they then basically throw sin out/away as anything to worry about: that's God's job, while ours is to get on with the business of showing God's love in whatever way we can imagine. I think she and a lot of other Christians could benefit from that.
For the most part I support the work of the Church, as do you, I must confess I just get tired of the money thing, to tell an old lady that she must pay God 10% or she is stealing from Him just rubs me the wrong way. In the days of my youth I did some preaching,
I refused to preach or teach tithing, it's not N.T.
The tithe -- that ten percent -- is definitely not in the New Testament. The only place in the NT where it's possible to claim that someone is stealing from God is when God has allowed them to become very wealthy, and they don't use that wealth to do good for others [there's actually a second one, which is pretty obvious: if someone promises money or property to God, then fail to follow through].
Were I preaching on the subject, I'd be reminding everyone that we're supposed to be caring for widows and orphans, and today the elderly, as part of being Christians -- not seeking donations from them, and definitely not urging them to take out loans to make donations!
