By soothing the Galatians this way Paul prepares their minds to bear the fatherly rebukes with filial feeling. This is like tempering absinthe or bitter medicine with honey and sugar to make it sweet again. Thus when parents have given their children a sound thrashing, they soothe them by offering them cookies, cakes, pears, apples, and such little presents, by which the children recognize that the parents meant it for their good, even though the punishment was severe. (Luther’s Works, v. 26 p.417)

On the other hand, if one stubbornly insists on the force of the Greek word, namely, that κατὰ πρόσωπον, “according to face,” always means “according to appearance”—as in John 7:24: “Do not judge by appearances”—this still does not demand the conclusion that there was hypocrisy on Paul’s part. On the contrary, the sense will be this: Paul was indeed in earnest when he opposed Peter and rebuked him verbally, but he did not do so from a malicious heart. It is in this way that Ecclus. 7:24 speaks: “Do you have daughters? Be concerned for their bodies, and do not show your face cheerful toward them.” Thus parents are stern to their children “according to face,” not from the heart, yet not hypocritically either. And every Christian should maintain cordial pleasantness and a feeling of unity when reproving a brother and disagreeing with him. But even of God Himself it is said (Lam. 3:33): “For He does not willingly afflict or grieve the sons of men.” But who would say that God plays the hypocrite when He scourges men and rejects them? Thus Paul rebuked Peter with a real reproof. He was harsh toward Peter “to his face” but affectionate toward him in his heart. Therefore Peter’s guilt was real and deserving to the highest degree of reproof, and in neither man was there any hypocrisy of the kind St. Jerome supposes. There was, however, that earlier hypocrisy by which Peter compelled the observance of Jewish and legalistic practices. (Luther’s Works, v. 27 p. 214).