According to the fruit that is produced, and its quality, you may know the value of the source - whether tree or person. But could the reverse or parallel causality be in effect so that a person who earnestly strives to conform to the list of characteristics that define the Fruits of the Spirit (patience, love, kindness and so on) will "fake it until he makes it"; that is, a person can game the relationship between outer decorum and inner heartland by persevering in the discipline until it becomes second nature for the person.
This attention to externalities to "cause" the internal landscape of the heart the change also lies behind the structured conditons of life and communication in military compounds and religious cloisters. And yet just to go through the motions may be a necessary but not sufficient condition to attain the desired state of mind/heart. That is, if one's "heart is just not in it" then the repeated habits will be hollow; not carried out "like you mean it."
This precondition of entering voluntarily into the enterprise and to make a sincere, good faith effort is the key to real change in one's heart that may truly lead to Fruits of the Spirit that are not forced and rehearsed, but which spring genuinely from the person's interior life as a natural and transparent expression of the person's heart; i.e. his or her relationship to God the creater as well as to the person's neighbors.
In sum there does seem to be an organic connection between the vine and its fruit. But forcing the fruit or grafting it on can only be a temporary likeness of the real thing. Eventually, with enough good faith effort and heart-felt will then genuine fruit may be expressed. Besides this in-built organic connection between interior (one's heart or constellation of relationships) and externalities another human process seems seems to be at play:
Consider the likeness, congruence or consonance between long-established couples, work mates, owners and their pets; or possibly even the resonating identity of a person and the clothes/shoes they wear (stiff and formal lends to a state of mind that fits the same way), the car they drive, the house and other material trappings they surround themselves with, and even the landscape and language they become rooted to. In all these cases what is external does correspond through empathy, induction or some other mysterious process to that a oneness forms to a certain extent. And by implication a boundary of distinction, or exception also forms to distance the person from things that do not suit one's Self, especially when it is diametrically opposite to the things that identify the person.
Taken together, the interior (heart) - externality (fruits of the Spirit) AND the identity of person to her or his social & material environment add up to an opportunity to jiggle the external environment in order to spur the changes in the person's heart. But ultimately the true heart must have the free will (opportunity) and motivation to go forth and bear genuine fruit of the Spirit.
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