Ryle's expositions are a rich combination of doctrinal and practical comments on the Gospel text. Ryle's Expository Thoughts can be used as a help in family worship, or as an aid in pastoral visitation, or simply as a companion to the Gospels in the private reading of Scripture. In these volumes Ryle shows again that, as in all his writing and preaching, he was first and foremost a pastor, and as J. I. Packer has pointed out, 'alongside the question "Is it true?" the question "What effect will this have on ordinary people?" was always in his mind'.