Is God or are We?

The fruit of the Spirit is not absence of sin or the presence of good deeds. The fruit is character quality.

Galatians 5:22-23 "22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

When we have the fruit, all those character qualities listed, those who are discerning will see it and it will lead to good behavior in general. When there is a laps on a hard day, then ...we will quickly confess and be cleansed to go onto obedience again.

Even non-believers can do good deeds without the fruit of the Spirit, but their character will lack the real fruit. What they do is for self glory, never for God and rarely for those they help, it is about appearances. Because non-believers do not have the help of the Holy Spirit to be selfless, they must do all their good works for self exaltation.

This is why God says "your good works are as filthy rags." When we are not born again our good works are disgusting to Christ, they don't glorify Him, but actually mock Him because they are done for self to impress man.