What did Jesus mean by "not peace but division"? I'm having difficulty understanding the following passage from Luke 12:51-53:


  Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.


My Question:


Should this passage be ignored or deleted?
If not, then what does it mean?
Following Christ in many countries carries a significant price to pay in many places of the world.  In fact, the decision to become a Christian often results in being ostracized from one's family and even worse.

Even within some Christian traditions, the decision to leave the tradition of one's family to join another tradition is met with exclusion from the family.

Jesus told His disciples before His death that the world will, in fact, hate them:


  “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me.  John 15:18-21


So, there is division and that decision does arise out of one's decision to follow Christ, but the prophecy was that the world would hate Christians--not that Christians would hate the world (the people of the world).

So, no, the passage should not be deleted.  There are millions of Christians who have experienced the hatred of one's own family upon their decision to follow Christ.  These verses predicted that.