What does Paul mean when he says that eternal life is for those who seek glory and honor?

Seeking glory, honor, and immortality (Romans 2:7) raises the question, Wherein consists our glory and honor? In other words, you can want glory and honor because you have achieved so much by your own strength and wisdom. Or you can seek for glory and honor because you know God and are with him and are being folded into his glory. You can seek honor because you are a helpless and yet adopted child of God. And what more honorable place is there to be than in the family of God?

We know that family members of very famous people tend to be treated with a special kind of honor. Well, there isn't any family that is greater than the family of God. And yet the irony is that to be a child of God is to be adopted because we've discovered our own helplessness. We've discovered our own weakness and fallibility. So there is no honor inhering in us per se. All of our honor is derivative. It's coming from the one who loved us and who is at work in us.

So yes, we are to seek for honor and glory and immortality if we understand that these are all flowing from God and that they will rise up within us and give glory back to God.