Albert Barnes Commentary Leviticus 11:44-47

"For I am Jehovah your God: sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy; for I am holy: neither shall ye defile yourselves with any manner of creeping thing that moveth upon the earth. For I am Jehovah that brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy. This is the law of the beast, and of the bird, and of every living creature that moveth in the waters, and of every creature that creepeth upon the earth; to make a distinction between the unclean and the clean, and between the living thing that may be eaten and the living thing that may not be eaten." — Leviticus 11:44-47 (ASV)

These verses set forth the spiritual ground on which the distinction between clean and unclean is based. Compare the marginal references and Leviticus 10:10; Leviticus 20:25–26; 1 Peter 1:15–16.

The basis of the obligation to maintain the distinction was the call of the Hebrews to be the special people of Yahweh. It was to be something in their daily life to remind them of the covenant which distinguished them from the nations of the world.

By Jesus Christ it was revealed (Matthew 15:11) to the elect people that they were no longer to be tied by the letter of the Law in regard to their food, but were to be left to the exercise of a regenerated judgment. They were to learn that the kingdom of God is not eating, or abstaining from, meats and drinks; but righteousness, and truth, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17. Compare Acts 10:15; 1 Timothy 4:4).