²³ For you have been born again,^(A) not of perishable seed, but of imperishable,^(B) through the living and enduring word of God.^(C)

And this is the word that was preached to you.

¹⁸ He chose to give us birth^(A) through the word of truth,^(B) that we might be a kind of firstfruits^(C) of all he created.