‘But Peter said, “Not so, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common and unclean.” '
Peter responded firmly, and possibly a little indignantly (being Peter). ‘Never, Lord,' he said, ‘for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.' It was not something even to be considered. The laws of uncleanness were so imbedded in him that he did not even consider the fact that if God told him to eat, then he was free to do so. He was just offended that God could think him capable of breaking the laws of uncleanness. His sense of ‘uncleanness' might well have been heightened because he was having to be extra careful when staying at a tanner's house. Perhaps, he might have thought, God was telling him that he had not been careful enough, and that this was therefore a warning?