Charles Ellicott Commentary Romans 2:7

"to them that by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and incorruption, eternal life:" — Romans 2:7 (ASV)

To those who.—Before the words “eternal life,” at the end of the verse, we must understand “He will render” to be implied. The phrase “glory, and honor, and immortality” is practically equivalent to “eternal life.” “Those who honestly seek for this life shall find it.” The stress is upon the words “by patient continuance in well doing.” From the point of view of rhetoric, no doubt exception might be taken to the tautology; but St. Paul was far too much in earnest to attend carefully to the laws of rhetoric, and it is this very spontaneity that is in great part the secret of his power.

Patient continuance.—A single word in Greek, but rightly translated in the Authorized Version as by (according to, by the rule of) patience (persistence or perseverance) in well doing (literally, in good work). In English, we would naturally say, “in good works,” but the Greek, here, as frequently occurs, by the use of the singular and the absence of the article, puts the abstract for the concrete, thus covering every particular case.