199. Rock Goes the Gospel - The Who "I Can't Explain"

The Who guitarist Pete Townshend wrote this song when he was 18 years old. He described it as being about a guy who "can't tell his girlfriend he loves her. This was the first single from The Who, which had recently changed their name from The High Numbers. It was one of the first original songs The Who performed; they played mostly covers of American R&B songs to that point.  This song is about what it is like to be young and unable to express your feelings. The guy in the song can't find a way to tell his girlfriend he loves her. Roger Daltrey told Uncut magazine: "Well, it's that thing – 'I got a feeling inside, I can't explain' – it's rock'n'roll. The more we try to explain it, the more we crawl up ourselves  and disappear! I was very proud of that record. That was us, y'know – it was an original song by Pete and it captured that energy and that testosterone that we had in those days." The Who performed this on the popular British TV show Ready, Steady, Go! Their manager, Kit Lambert, invited all of their friends to the performance, ensuring a hip, young audience for the cameras. This was the song that introduced audiences to the powerful drumming of Keith Moon. He became one of the first high-profile drummers in rock, and quickly earned a reputation as a wild man.This was on the set list for their 2.00am performance at the isle of white festival in 1970.

Got a feeling inside (Can't explain)
It's a certain kind (Can't explain)
I feel hot and cold (Can't explain)
Yeah, down in my soul, yeah (Can't explain)

I said (Can't explain)
I'm feeling good now, yeah, but (Can't explain)

Dizzy in the head and I'm feeling blue
The things you've said, well, maybe they're true
I'm gettin' funny dreams again and again
I know what it means, but

Can't explain
I think it's love
Try to say it to you
When I feel blue

But I can't explain (Can't explain)
Yeah, hear what I'm saying, girl (Can't explain)

Dizzy in the head and I'm feeling bad
The things you've said have got me real mad
I'm gettin' funny dreams again and again
I know what it means but

Can't explain
I think it's love
Try to say it to you
When I feel blue

But I can't explain (Can't explain)
Forgive me one more time, now (Can't explain)

I said I can't explain, yeah
You drive me out of my mind
Yeah, I'm the worrying kind, babe
I said I can't explain 

"I Can't Explain" is about a the difficulties a teenage boy has in telling someone that they love them. It's an adolescent rock anthem. It's a song that conveys for thousands how they feel and what they would like to say to their collective girl friends is they had the courage. The song is about love that cannot be explained. We find Paul the apostle talking about a love that cannot be explained in his letter to the church in Ephesus. In chapter 3 of his letter Paul writes about a prayer that he has for the church. In Vs 18 we hear Paul speak of this deep love.

"God is Love", but how do we explain it? The Oxford Dictionary defines love as "an intense affection for another person based on familial or personal ties". Often this "intense affection" stems from a sexual attraction for that other person. We love other people, or we say we love other people, when we are attracted to them and when they make us feel good. A key phrase in the dictionary definition of love is the phrase "based on." This phrase implies that we love conditionally; in other words, we love someone because they fulfill a condition that we require before we can love them. How many times have you heard or said, "I love you because you are cute;" or "I love you because you take good care of me;" or "I love you because you are fun to be with"?

Our love is not only conditional, it is also based on feelings and emotions that can change from one moment to the next. The divorce rate is extremely high in today's society because husbands and wives supposedly stop loving one another-or they "fall out of love". They may go through a rough patch in their marriage, and they no longer "feel" love for their spouse, so they call it quits. Evidently, their marriage vow of "till death do us part" means they can part at the death of their love for their spouse rather than at their physical death.

Can anyone really comprehend "unconditional" love? It seems the love that parents have for their children is as close to unconditional love as we can get without the help of God's love in our lives. We continue to love our children through good times and bad, and we don't stop loving them if they don't meet the expectations we may have for them. We make a choice to love our children even when we consider them unlovable; our love doesn't stop when we don't "feel" love for them. This is similar to God's love for us, God's love transcends the human definition of love to a point that is hard for us to comprehend or explain.

The Bible tells us that "God is Love" (1 John 4:8). But how can we even begin to understand that truth? There are many passages in the Bible that give us God's definition of love. The most well known verse is John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." So one way God defines love is in the act of giving. However, what God gave (or should we say, "who" God gave) was not a mere gift-wrapped present; God sacrificed His only Son so that we, who put our faith in His Son, will not spend eternity separated from Him. This is an amazing love, because we are the ones who choose to reject God, yet it's God who mends the separation through His intense personal sacrifice, and all we have to do is accept His gift.

Another great verse about God's love is found in Romans 5:8, "But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." In this verse and in John 3:16, we find no conditions placed on God's love for us. God doesn't say, "as soon as you clean up your act, I'll love you; " nor does He say, "I'll sacrifice my Son if you promise to love Me." In fact, in Romans 5:8, we find just the opposite. God wants us to know that His love is unconditional, so He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us while we were still unlovable rebels. We didn't have to get clean, and we didn't have to make any promises to God before we could experience His love. His love for us has always existed, and because of that, He did all the giving and sacrificing long before we were even aware that we needed His love.

In our Devotional scripture passage Paul the apostle stresses Christ's love in his letter to the church in Ephesus. In chapter 3 and vs 18 Paul speaks of the dimension of the love of Christ. Paul uses words like "Grasp" - As if God's love is just out of reach "Know" - As if God's love can be known but the people who he is writing to cannot understand it fully. In other translations of the bible Paul substitutes the word "Know" for "Comprehend" or "Explain"  God's love is so vast and immeasurable that you cannot explain it. God's love is without bounds- It is unconditional, it knows no barriers. God is Love is very different from human love. God's love is unconditional, and it's not based on feelings or emotions. He doesn't love us because we're lovable or because we make Him feel good; He loves us because He is love. He created us to have a loving relationship with Him, and He sacrificed His own Son (who also willingly died for us) to restore that relationship.

Paul holds out hope for the church in Ephesus that the depth, height, breadth and width of the love of God can be comprehended and known. We may feel that it cannot be explained, but Paul prays that we will be able to fully know that love of God.