27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; ^dhe knows not how.

5 As you do not know the way ^kthe spirit comes to ^lthe bones in the womb¹ of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything.

17 then I saw all the work of God, that ^aman cannot find out the work that is done under the sun. However much man may toil in seeking, he will not find it out. Even though a wise man claims to know, ^bhe cannot find it out.

7 ^tDo not marvel that I said to you, ‘You¹ must be born ^uagain.’ 8 ^vThe wind² blows ^wwhere it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

You Must Be Born Again

1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named ^hNicodemus, ⁱa ruler of the Jews.

37 And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. 38 But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body.

2 and by which ⁱyou are being saved, if you ^jhold fast to the word I preached to you—^kunless you believed in vain.

3 remembering before ^four God and Father ^gyour work of faith and labor of ^hlove and ⁱsteadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

The Thessalonians’ Faith and Example

2 ^dWe give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly^{1 e}mentioning you in our prayers,

18 For Christ also ^msuffered^{1 n}once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, ^othat he might bring us to God, being put to death ^pin the flesh but made alive ^qin the spirit,