One of our problems is that we do not recognize the reality of our relationships. We tend to think of individuals as hard centers of reality, and the relations between them as being a matter of arrangement. If things are good, well, that’s fine, but they can be “not good,” and the individual is still all right. But this is not the way God has put us together.
But the Bible teaches that our relationships are an important aspect of our personalities, which means that our relationships are part of our being. This is what the Scriptures are referring to when they refer to koinonia fellowship, to the blessing we have of partaking of one another. The Spirit enables us to do this, and this should not be surprising because the Holy Spirit is how God Himself does this. The Father and the Son are true Persons, but the relationship between them, the Holy Spirit of God and the Holy Spirit of Christ, is also a true Person. The implications of this are staggering.
So when Jesus tells us to treat others as we would wish to be treated, He is not just referring to the other person, but also to the space between us. When Jesus tells us to forgive others as we would be forgiven, He is referring to the space between. That space between is not dead space. It is not empty space. The space between us and our brother, or between us and our sister, is part of the body. It needs to be tended and protected as much as any other part of the body.
There are many ways we need to grow in wisdom with regard to this.