Of all the passages in the Bible which sketch the character of Christ and the fruit which the Spirit brings to our lives, none is more compact and challenging that Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”.. We can divide these nine characteristics into three “clusters.” The first of these “love, joy peace” speaks of our God-ward relationship. The second cluster, “longsuffering, gentleness, goodness” are seen in our man-ward relationship. And the third cluster “faith, meekness, temperance” seems to focus on our inward relationship. When the Bible talks about the believer producing fruit, it is not necessarily talking about “good works” rather it is an indication that we are to allow this fruit to be manifest in our lives. If these areas are not growing and developing on our lives, we need to re-evaluate our relationship with the Lord. Fruit is the natural product of being attached to the main trunk of the tree. If we are truly apart of the family of God, and therefore, connected to God by the Holy Spirit we will see these characteristics manifested in our lives. As we approach a new year, it is good for us to do a bit of self evaluation and see if we are manifesting these characteristics in our lives.