“eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality” (Romans 2:7).
Romans 2:7 highlights two key attributes that help distinguish a person who seeks to honor God. First, he or she is actively engaged in doing good. Next, he or she is someone who demonstrates their patient and persistent commitment to that virtue. Yet even while we seek to integrate these attributes within our lives, we would be naïve to presume that everyone shares the same definition of “good.”
For instance, two well-intentioned people might choose very different life paths based on the way they interpret and define the meaning of “good.” Therefore, we should ensure that our understanding of “good” aligns with God’s perspective on that characteristic.
We can draw several principles for doing good from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. Another benchmark that should help define our idea of good appears in the book of the Biblical prophet Micah…
“He has shown you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justly, To love mercy, And to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8).
These attributes are much like beacons that serve to guide us along the road of doing good. If we encounter these characteristics in our daily lives, we can be reasonably assured that we are traveling the path of Romans 2:7. While we cannot find salvation by doing good (for salvation is through faith in Christ alone, as Paul the Apostle established earlier in Romans 1:16-17), those who have experienced a transformed life through Christ will demonstrate that transformation by doing good.
Romans 2:7 also lays out three important motivations for doing good: the quest for “glory, honor, and immortality.” In the language of the Old Testament, the word “glory” expresses the characteristics of weightiness, substance, worth, and/or value. In the New Testament, this word is closely associated with the concepts of excellence, dignity, and praiseworthiness.
The following reference to honor draws our attention to the qualities of reverence and respect. “Immortality” speaks of more than everlasting life, for this term encompasses life in all its fullness without the sinful limitations or restrictions we experience today. God alone possesses immortality, as we’re told in 1 Timothy 6:16, and He is willing to share that quality with humanity (2 Timothy 1:10).
For those who yearn for genuine meaning and significance in a world that often seems meaningless and insignificant, this passage offers the comforting assurance that “He will give everlasting life to those who search for glory, honor, and immortality by persisting in doing what is good…” (GW).