The contrast between “The fruit of the Spirit” and “The works of darkness”

Gal. 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. The Holy Spirit brings about a change in people with their Ambitions, Attitudes, Actions, Affections and Emotions.  Every area of our lives begins to change when we "sincerely" follow the Lord. 

LOVE- 1 Corinthians 13:8-13 love with preaching and knowledge, on the one hand, and faith and hope, on the other. All of these (with love) are important aspects of our lives here and now. Love, therefore, is "the greatest" of the most significant realities we experience as Christians. Christian love is not simply an emotion which arises because of the character of the one loved. It is not due to the loving quality of the lover. It is a relationship of self-giving which results from God's activity in Christ. The source of Christian love is God (Rom. 5:8), The Christian walk is to be characterized by love it is connected with faith and is also connected with hope and this does not disappoint us, because our hearts have been filled with God's love through the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:2,5).  Love is evidence of and a foretaste of the goal of God's purposes for us. Love draws a distinction to Hate:  Hatred of other people is a common response in human relations. Conflict, jealousy, and envy all works of the flesh, often result in animosity, separation, revenge, and even murder

Joy- “The joy of the Lord is our strength” When times are hard we still can have JOY. For his anger endures but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning Heb 12:2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. God desires us to have Joy in our lives even when circumstances become like "Job”. Psalms 51:6-10 Behold, thou desire truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.  Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.  Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.  Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.  Our "JOY" can be lost by our own sinful values and lack of spiritual walk. Thinking of ourselves and through pride we loose our joy. We can have real joy in knowing that He loves us and is coming back for us.  No matter what problems that we have throughout our day, we can have real joy in the comfort of His love.

Peace- Rom 5:1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ; Peace is one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit. The Bible defines the fruit of the Holy Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23, and is the third characteristic mentioned. As we transform ourselves to reflect more of God's character, evidence of our relationship with God grows in our lives. Peace is one of the "fruits" or results of being in a relationship with God. 
Romans 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit? Nothing can remove God's peace from us. When we are anxious, we then give thanks to God as we pray Then the "peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus"

 Patience- Col 1:11  May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully Patience does not develop overnight. God’s power and goodness are crucial to the development of patience.

James 1:3-4 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. This encourages us to know that trials are His way of perfecting our patience. Our patience is further developed and strengthened by resting in God’s perfect will and timing, even in the face of evil men who “succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes” Psalm 37:7 Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him; do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Eph 4:2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, James 5:11 As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of Compassion and mercy how do we display the patience that is characteristic of Christ? First, we thank God.

Kindness- Kindness will put people at ease, and tells them you are out to do them good instead of harm. This allows people to feel safe around us. In Eph 4:32 and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you. It is all a matter of doing to others as God has done for us. To treat people with respect and Listening to others at all times choosing your words carefully “ask yourself how will you feel” than speak gentle words as we give a helping hand

Titus 3:2 to speak evil of no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing all humility to all men. By Doing acts of kindness for people give them little tastes of God's love. People actually like being treated kindly, as if they are valued. They can lay down at least some of their defences, relax more, and feel comfortable. Most non-Christians have an expectation of being treated a bit more kindly by Christians, and are disappointed Doing well for others is more than a duty; it's also a prayer and devotion. As with all aspects of godly character, it is firstly In Luke 6:35   "But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High For He is kind to the unthankful and evil.

Goodness- Goodness is doing what is right it benefits when we do what is right for righteousness is a part of Goodness.  If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it. Gen 4:7 as a state of quality we see goodness when consistently seeking the good for others such as kindness it has a way of setting things in right order. The best way to is to experience what things were bad then replace it with Good things!!! This takes time to be consistent because it is against our nature yet it is a fruit of the spirit!! As in Rom 7:15 I do not understand what I do for the things I want to do I do not do. As you see here it is the natural man the natural can fake it and become weary and it does not please God for He is Love. As we walk in the spirit we process this quality of the spirit of Goodness. For it is the engagement of love! It displays integrity, honesty and compassion to others and allows us to do the right thing before man and God. 
Faithfulness - hinges upon what we value as important combined with commitment. As Humans we have a powerful tendency to be faithful to what we think is truly important, such as friends and family. Prove 20:6, 7 most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find? The just man walks in his integrity: his children are blessed after him. Most men will talk a great deal of their charity, generosity, hospitality, and piety, will sound a trumpet to themselves, But it is hard to find those that really are kind and liberal, that have done and will do more than either they speak of or care to hear spoken of, that will be true friends. The meaning to us is clear. We must love Christ supremely, or we do not love Him much if at all. If we are not willing to give up all earthly possessions, forsake all earthly friends, and obey Him above all others everything else will follow that desire, to be faithless to Him, if we are unfaithful He will remain Faithful to us
Gentleness- Acts 7:59-60 And they stoned Stephen, he called upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.  And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord; lay not this sin to their charge.  And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Steven had a gentle Spirit this prepared him for greater jobs and his understanding of Jesus as he shared his compassion that lead to loving people forgiving those who killed him. As Jesus forgave the world those who killed him Steven was a shadow of Jesus Christ Luke 23:34 Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.  While Jesus was dying on the cross for our sins, as we let our gentleness be known in all we do putting others first thinking of others: Whoever wants to be like our Lord Jesus, should be willing to lay their life down for Him.  That means putting Christ First in all things, to be Christ like means to be gentle, kind, loving and compassionate like Jesus is.  BEING LIKE JESUS IS HAVING HIS GENTLENESS MANIFESTED IN OUR LIVES.

Self-Control- is temperance, translated in Greek enkrateia, and means the processing power, in the Greek holding in hand the passions and desires and impulses. It is a practical application to life. Once you start to enter into a true sanctification process with the Lord then the Holy Spirit will begin to move upon you. God from the beginning chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth, The reason is we all have a certain amount of character and flaws in us that operate in our personalities’ that we need to deal with that we become perfect Matt 5:48 It is our duty as a Christian to desire, to aim and press towards perfection in grace and holiness. Our spirit and flesh will war against each other because they come into conflict Gal 5:24, 25 since we all live in a very self-centred and materialistic type world today many people have very poor impulse control. If they see something they immediately want, they will do anything they can to try and get it. They will not be denied until they get what they are going after. These people are obviously very weak in the quality of self-control. We need to learn to walk in the Holy Spirit, and we will not fulfil the Lust of the flesh.