My first few months on the job, it amazed me to see the amount of office politics that went on. People chose sides and made allies and enemies. It wasn t uncommon at all to hear people bad-mouth someone behind his back, and then be as friendly as ever when they came face to face with that person. There was a time in my wide-eyed, idealistic phase when I thought that everyone in our company was committed solely to the success of the company. I talked about the subject with a colleague, and he told me something interesting.
Selfishness is the opposite of love.
Few will deny that all the other sins listed are destructive. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. Just a chapter before, Paul explained his situation.