Regarding the idea of porn, sex workers etc, remember those who are saying "thou shalt not" are obsessed with limiting sexuality through repression and social controls-including the threat of hell.

But is that who God is? What has God got against pleasure anyway? God gave each of us pleasurable parts of our body...why? Because each of us has one pleasure button that has no purpose other than that–the male nipple and the female clitoris. What was the Creator trying to say about that? These same people who are so afraid of God are so very afraid of pleasure.

There is no biblical verse against sensual pleasure. We have the stories of Jesus that are all about his sensual life. Not once did he teach people to avoid pleasure. (The bible is very much against irresponsible hedonism-not because it is a sensual or sexual action, but because its excess is all about ego and forgetting other's needs.

To answer this question, use this helpful translation in The Message written by biblical scholar who was fluent in Greek and Hebrew.

5-8 Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored.

Notice this passage is not about sex or the body, but rather about our self-absorbed ego that ignores God. Paul uses "the world" and "the flesh" interchangeably. He does not mean sex. He means "the ways of the world" that lead to death and destruction. He always uses this "world/flesh" language to compare and contrast to the life of the Spirit his readers aspire to. This is not about homosexuality, sex with slaves, polygamy, sex-outside-of-marriage or looking at erotic photos of naked bodies. Paul's message is far deeper and more spiritual than that.

A couple of things to think about: The Law is quite clear that both the man and the woman were to be brought to trial. This was not a trial but a test for Jesus and the man was (conveniently) missing. The scholars-as you call them-are being disingenuous in their interpretation.

This story is not about adultery or any lessons we can take from it about sexual repression. It is about entrapment. And the moral lesson here is that Jesus chooses not condemn.

Secondly, adultery was prohibited NOT because of sexual morality as we understand it but so men would not steal other men's property. This was a pro-creationist culture that favored male babies and controlled a woman’s reproduction to assure the legitimacy of her babies. The lives of the women, sexual or otherwise, were of less importance and ranked at the level of cows (see the context of the Ten Commandments in Exodus about coveting).

Anybody who preaches that the prodigal son paid for prostitutes reveals this is what they would do if given the chance!  :) There are many reasons (many of them not good) to go into the "far country". But there are legitimate reasons for stepping out into the unknown. It is called stepping out in faith. The important thing is the intention of the heart.

Scripture notes Jesus called it "riotous living". This could be anything but usually means "had the wrong priorities." This is from the perspective of the parent who knew what was wise. Yet, for the rest of us who are inexperienced, we oftentimes don't know our priorities are messed up until after the fact–which this situation reveals.

“But, the story is not about WHAT he was doing, but rather about WHETHER it mattered. In fact, his father didn't wait to hear what he had to say. The focus is not on his confession but the father's joy at his homecoming. The moral of the story (for me) is we do the best that we can-some of it is misguided or stupid in hindsight-but we are always greeted by Love when we come to our senses!