The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22 includes ‘faithfulness.’ While the same underlying Greek word can also be translated as ‘faith,’ it can only mean ‘faithfulness’ here. That is, because the context of this verse is a list of virtues that appear in a Christian’s life. Faith is something that a Christian does. Faithfulness, on the other hand, is a virtue that describes the nature of the Christian, as a result of the Holy Spirit changing their life. Faithfulness is primarily towards God, but includes being reliable and faithful towards others too, just like love is primarily towards God but also towards our neighbours. But, in case we are tempted to try to be more faithful in all areas of our lives, we have to see that on our own we cannot be as faithful as we ought to be, because we are sinners (Romans 3:23). We are imperfect, and we fail either a little or a lot, in all that we do. Instead, the Bible teaches that faithfulness is something that we see in our lives after we trust in Jesus, and have the Holy Spirit renew and enable us to live more godly. Faithfulness is part of the fruit of the Spirit – in other words, it is the result of the Spirit at work in a believer. So, if we want to be more reliable and faithful, both to God and others, the quickest way (the only way) is to take the long way of first not trying to be faithful, but instead turning to God for forgiveness for our sins. Second, rely on God’s Spirit to change us into the more godly people we ought to be. Then we will see, or others will see in us, the work of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, which includes faithfulness. Praise God for his mercy and grace.