I'm intrigued that people seem to be getting here searching on things like "U2 lyric meaning" or "meaning behind U2 songs." There is in fact a site, U2MoL that, unlike Get Up Off Your Knees, purports to tell you what U2 songs "mean." It actually is more of a compilation of references, purely private opinions, and comments band members have made about U2 lyrics, and it's interesting. There is also a book by Niall Stokes on this topic (Into The Heart), which has lots of lively comments from Bono about what U2 lyrics mean; I own it, and it's good enough, but (for one thing) it sure doesn't evidence much ability to notice and understand U2's spiritual allusions.

We talk about this overall issue in the U2 sermons book, but I guess if I were going to make a short comment it would be this: I certainly understand the fascination in wanting to unearth what U2 were "on about" when they wrote a song. However, IMHO a key aspect of U2's work is that the songs have elastic, allusive, re-assignable meanings. So any question that is after "The" meaning of a U2 lyric is by definition, I think, going to chop off part of its own answer.