NOTES for Mat 23:11-12
A godless society that has lost any real incentives for its development has in every age tried to "morally" motivate people by playing on their vanity. In the community of people that Christ offers, everything is different: there is only one competition, the competition in love, where success is rewarded with the possibility of loving still more, that is, of serving other people. For one who loves, the other is always more important than himself, and growth in love means that the other becomes still more important.
"This contradicts human nature," we have often heard. Yes, fallen nature, but not the nature created by God and revealed in perfect fullness in Jesus Christ.