That was Peter's response to those who were calling into question his recent involvement with folk outside their doctrinal boundaries.
The words captured by Luke, in Acts 10 &11, all followed an unplanned meeting with Cornelius and two others wherein Peter witnessed a common experience, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all, not unlike what had happened earlier to the 120 in the Upper Room.
This was his "AHa! moment" as he grasped the reality that "God is no respecter of persons."
He was now being "called on the carpet" and not weeks apart from that upper room moment when his very inquirers had also spoken in languages unlearned. Yes, those same men had earlier been supernaturally gifted with an ability to speak to men and women from all nations the "Good News."
How quickly we humans deny others the grace earlier shown toward our own lives.
In just a short time, it's seems a stubborn and religious bias was questioning his association with these unclean, uncircumcised "Gentiles".
However, God was ahead of their game having given Peter a previous and timely vision of "unclean food," and offered up three times! Peter was clear as to God's intent for these three men, though due to his nature, unlikely the last time.
In a day when we struggle to defend Isreal (though I get their dilemma with a ruthless Hamas), we mustn't forget that even Paul spoke of a New Jerusalem as God's long term goal.
God is no respecter of persons or nations, neither is it God's will that any should perish, regardless of who they are, where they are from, how they look or whether they meet the doctrinal standards imposed over time by Christianity's interpretation of scripture. Our institutions have been long known for major shifts and similar "aHa's", about every 500 years.
You would think that we would catch on, given that it was this very God incarnate who made such a statement to all mankind, a long planned strategy. That being that any sacrifice imposed as means of appeasement was insufficient apart from that of His own. God is love, don't fight it!
With one act of love, God in Christ fulfilled what man had long prescribed as an attempt to achieve peace with our Supreme Being.
You have to admit, His was quite a timely arrival, and of necessity a male, given the power bias of those days. Timely in that the Rome choice for capital punishment, so well matched a Moses moment in the desert centuries before, when a serpent was lifted up in the desert.
This time however, God himself was lifted up, nailing the long feared serpent of sin to a tree. An act of love freeing all who would believe and frustrating to faith those who would not!
Our doctrinal differences have divided us long enough, God is love, though it has taken nearly 75 years even for this writer to get here myself.
"It is finished" and according to scripture this God who defeated even death, then descended into hell to set captives held there free, as well!
We are free, though however slow at times in catching on!